Expectant Shrewsbury Town manager Graham Turner has urged his side to throw down a promotion marker as they prepare for their Christmas cracker at Cheltenham.

Town make the trip to the form team in League Two over the last eight matches for a mouth-watering third-versus-fourth Boxing Day battle.

Shrewsbury have been beaten in their away games against the two other sides currently above them in the table – Crawley and Southend – and Turner is keen to make it third time lucky.

“It will be interesting to see how we do against another of the top sides away from home,” he said.

“We have lost to Crawley and Southend after having a go in the second half of both games.

“Now we have the third of the teams above us and we have to make sure we get something out of this one. It’s a test of our credentials.”

While Turner isn’t surprised to see Cheltenham in the upper echelons on League Two, he admits reaching Christmas in third place represents a fine effort from Monday’s hosts.

“I think Mark Yates is an astute manager who knows what the game is about,” said Turner.

“He has signed some decent players and the team are organised. To be sat where there are, it really has been a good performance in the first half of the season.”

Town will leave no stone unturned in their quest to earn the victory which will send them back into the automatic promotion spots, with their training schedule including sessions both today and tomorrow.

And Turner has plenty of healthy selection options with Marvin Morgan, Terry Gornell and Lionel Ainsworth all battling for recalls after losing their places in last week’s 1-0 triumph over Macclesfield.

Young trio Tom Bradshaw, James Collins and Jon Taylor will all be hoping to retain their places, while full back Jermaine Grandison is now fully recovered from a hamstring injury and is available.